


Grounded

by jade-1459 (Jade)



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: kinkofthemonth, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-22
Updated: 2012-05-22
Packaged: 2017-11-05 20:05:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/410469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jade/pseuds/jade-1459
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John wanted to be grounded in reality, not lost to the maybes and might-be’s that he’d seen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grounded

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for [Hugglewolf](http://hugglewolf.livejournal.com/) for the Valentine's Day stalker Challenge over at [Kink of the Month](http://kinkofthemonth.livejournal.com/).

John had only been dozing off when the door to his room hissed open. He didn’t bother opening his eyes to find out who had intruded into the dark stillness. It was the middle of the night after a particularly brutal mission; only one person would brave entering his room uninvited like this. The muted curse was all the confirmation John needed.

“Did you have to leave your gear in the middle of the room?” Rodney demanded softly, as he made his way further into the room.

“It’s not in the middle of the room, “John answered, pulling the blankets more securely about his shoulders.

The bed dipped behind him when Rodney sat to remove his boots. “I beg to differ,” was Rodney’s muttered reply. “Your floor is practically an obstacle course.” John could feel the heat radiating off Rodney’s body through the blankets at the small of his back. He relaxed into the warmth, his mind drifting off when he heard the soft thunk of Rodney’s boots being moved to the foot of the bed.

The sudden absence of Rodney’s weight and warmth from the bed woke John back up again. He swallowed the complaint that tried to escape. There would be no reasoning with Rodney after the mission they’d had, and John had long ago stopped trying. Instead he simply accepted that Rodney was not nearly as inept or oblivious when it came to social interactions as he professed to be. He always seemed to know when to leave John to his solitude, and when to ignore the unspoken demand to be left alone.

“Shove over,” Rodney commanded when he raised one side of the blankets and crawled into bed.

John muttered into his pillow, shifting forward to make room for Rodney in the small bed. When the blankets came back down, trapping Rodney’s body heat, John sighed softly and felt that warmth seep into him. John appreciated the care Rodney took to keep from touching him, even when it would have been easier and more natural, to simply close the distance between them in the small space.

It was something Rodney did when he came to John’s room in the middle of the night to offer his support and comfort to John when the mission or day had been a particularly bad one. It was just something Rodney did when John felt he had been violated in some way – gave John the choice and chance to dictate the kind of distances he wanted to maintain between himself and everyone else, while still getting the kind of comfort he needed.

He knew that if he refused to close the distance that Rodney would maintain it throughout the night – losing sleep in an effort to keep from accidentally touching him. It would be hell on Rodney, but he’d wake up in the morning to find Rodney still there, waiting for him to open his eyes and decide that the day was worth the effort of getting out of bed. And then he would dress and leave and never once utter a single complaint about lack of sleep or aching muscles.

Tonight John didn’t really want to keep that artificial distance between him and Rodney. He wanted to forget about the day he’d had. Wanted to push the events out of his mind for a short little while. Tomorrow was soon enough to deal with the fall out, but tonight he just wanted to be left alone to a restful night of sleep. Reaching behind himself, he pulled Rodney’s arm around his middle, wrapping Rodney’s warmth around him.

“Hey,” Rodney greeted behind him, curling behind John’s body. It was a protective stance John had seen Rodney take off world more than a few times when he was sheltering someone, putting his body between the person he was protecting and everything else, making sure that whatever kind of evils might come looking for John that night would have to get through Rodney first. It was a nice kind of change to be the one being protected once in a while. “So, how was your day?” Rodney asked, as though he hadn’t been there. It brought an involuntary smile to John’s face.

“Pretty shitty, actually,” John answered honestly. “Got kidnapped by a crazy priestess off world and shoved into a little pod thing that supposedly lets you see into the future, and would have made me just as crazy as the priestess if my team hadn’t saved me when they did.”

Not something he wanted to deal with tonight, and he was grateful that Rodney didn’t like talking about emotions more than absolutely necessary either. So when Rodney made a sympathetic sound but no real comment, John took Rodney’s hand in his and slid it under his shirt grinding his ass into Rodney’s groin. He wanted to be distracted from the memories, wanted to be grounded in the reality of the here and now, not lost to the maybes and might-be’s of what he had seen.

Rodney nuzzled the back of his neck, laying gentle open mouthed kisses against what skin was exposed above the collar of his shirt. John turned his head back to capture Rodney’s mouth in a kiss. It was almost chase, just a light brushing of lips, catching, releasing before returning a little more moist, a little less chase.

Getting their remaining clothing off without disturbing the blanket and letting in the cool air of the room was a challenge. Elbows and knees ended up in some awkward places and more than once they were in danger of falling to the floor. When Rodney’s arm flailed trying to get his boxers off, lifting the blankets off them and teetering on the edge of the bed, John reached over and grabbed Rodney’s arm, pulling him back into the middle of the bed.

Once they were settled again, the blankets up over their shoulders and clothing finally removed, John leaned up for another careful kiss. It was a slow build up, hands relearning the familiar paths over skin and muscle, making the most of the sudden abundance of time they found themselves with. It was the one bright side to bad missions, getting the following day off to simply relax and reconnect.

And John needed that reconnection more than usual this time. He didn’t want a fast fuck that left his body sated but his mind still too full. He wanted to be consumed by this, to be consumed by Rodney. To forget anything else existed outside of the dark room and the heat they were generating under the blankets.

Running his hands up Rodney’s back, John arched into Rodney’s careful touch. It had been a long time since John had been made to feel comforted and safe with another person. But that’s what he felt with Rodney’s hand sweeping down his side to curl around his hip, his other arm trapped under John’s back and the bed, holding him closer.

This wasn’t a quick fuck. It was a slow and familiar dance between bodies, Rodney cradled between John’s thighs, rocking against one another like gentle waves against a beach. Sweat slick skin offer just the right amount of glide to keep from chaffing and catching, making the journey to the end more important than the end itself. Pleasure built in effortless waves between them, reflected back in mute gestures of a firmer press of fingers in the back, a stuttered kiss.

John could feel Rodney’s eyes on him. Even in the dark, when he couldn’t see them, John knew Rodney was watching him. Because Rodney always had sex with his eyes open, watching and cataloging John’s reactions and expressions. This time wasn’t any different. He knew Rodney was watching him and he knew the question that he would read there if he could see Rodney’s face. Is this what you want? Is it enough?

He brought his hand to Rodney’s face, cupping his cheek, in reply to the unseen question. Because this was enough, this was more than enough – exactly what John wanted and needed and hadn’t known before Rodney had arrived. The muscles were tightening low in his belly and he could feel that familiar tug and pull that told him he was close, so very close. Leaning up for a kiss, John parted his lips in invitation when he felt the heat and pleasure overwhelm the comfort and the build, tumbling him off the edge into a drawn out fall. One that kept the nerves humming as Rodney continued to rock against him, providing slick friction to sensitive areas.

He broke the kiss on a half chocked moan, wrapping his arms and legs more tightly around Rodney, curling into the almost painful pleasure that sent white spots skittering across his night vision. They were temple to temple when Rodney came, his breath stuttering out in warm puffs against John’s cheek seconds before John felt the added wetness between their stomachs.

They stayed like that for another few minutes, relearning the limits of their own skin and gathering enough energy to move. It was warm and sticky under the blankets and they would probably wake up to find themselves glued to the bedding and each other in the morning.

But that was okay, because when they were finally able to shift on the bed, Rodney’s body spooned behind John, John was able to close his eyes, and for the first time since he’d been rescued from the crazy priestess and her crazy making pod, all he saw behind his eyelids was darkness.

 

 

  
**~*~*~**   


 

 

John entered Rodney’s room late the following night. Rodney’s room was dark, the curtains pulled tight over the open windows. The only sounds aside from Rodney’s breathing were the ocean far below and the gentle wind that made its way between the towers. John stripped quickly and crawled into bed next to Rodney.

“Hey,” he said, snuggling up to Rodney’s front. “So, how was your day?”

Rodney snorted into the top of John’s head, fingers carding through his hair. It was Rodney’s turn to ground himself with touch, and John could be a good touch stone, he’d learned that much from Rodney. “I don’t know,” Rodney responded. “I mean, I read the mission report my fellow team member wrote up about being kidnapped by a crazy priestess and shoved into a pod. A pod that could apparently show him the future. Which is completely ridiculous, but I’ve learned not to discount the crazy things Pegasus seems to through at us. But the future he saw wasn’t a very pretty one for Atlantis. I’m sort of stuck on how he saw it all end.”


End file.
